Kantar Media Intelligence Health News

Half of women with breast cancer fail to take the full course of drugs

Women with breast cancer are putting their lives at risk by failing to take the full course of medication, according to a study by the University of Glasgow. The findings suggest that at least half of women prescribed a five-year course of anti-hormone breast cancer treatment either stopped taking or took markedly less than their prescribed doses from the third year of treatment onwards. Tamoxifen, which is widely used to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer, can cause severe side-effects, including hot flushes, low libido, mood swings and nausea, which discourages many women from continuing. But by doing so women significantly affect their chances of surviving the disease.

Traffic pollution is as dangerous as passive smoking in the development of childhood asthma, new research by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute has suggested. Research in 10 European cities has estimated that 14 per cent of chronic childhood asthma is due to exposure to traffic pollution near busy roads.

People with high blood pressure or heart problems should be careful about consuming "energy" drinks as they could trigger cardiac arrest, US researchers said. The US researchers said the evidence that energy drinks raised blood pressure was "convincing and concerning". Specifically, they found energy drinks raised systolic pressure - the maximum, when blood is being pumped through - by 3.5 points. It also lengthened a phase of the heart's electrical cycle called the "QT interval". Having a long QT interval is a sign that a person is at greater risk of suffering from an irregular heartbeat, which can be fatal. The researchers said drinking one to three cans in a session raised the QT interval by 10 milliseconds.

Patients with a dangerous heart condition could be treated with yoga and acupressure, the European Society of Cardiology's EuroHeart Care Congress in Glasgow was told. The alternative therapies can help with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat suffered by about 500,000 people in Britain, two separate studies found. The therapies could help by reducing blood pressure and heart rates.

Salt is responsible for more than one in seven deaths from heart attacks and strokes, research by Harvard Medical School has revealed. Men are most likely to die from salt-related heart conditions, as they comprise 60 per cent of the deaths. Lead researcher Dr Dariush Mozaffarian called for governments around the world to encourage people to cut down on salt. Public health minister Anna Soubry last week announced plans to slash Britain's salt consumption by a quarter. She wants more food companies to sign up to a "responsibility deal" to help cut the daily salt intake from an 8.1 grams a day average to 6g.

Parents are urged to get their children vaccinated against measles as the number of new infections rose by 64 in the last week. The disease has hit 111 schools and nurseries and is spreading across Wales. Parents of children who have not had the MMR jab were told to contact their GP.

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22/03/2013

By:
Presswatch

NHS and Health Sector News

The Guardian reports that Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, has proposed an Ofsted-style performance rating system for NHS hospitals, but a Nuffield Trust report has concluded that hospitals are too complex for their performance to be adequately conveyed through a single score. Separately, 60.5% of patients are having to wait more than 48 hours to see a GP and often take time off work to do so, according to research by the Patients Association. The Times reports that staff cuts are putting safety at risk and operations - such as cataract surgery and hip and knee replacements - are being rationed as the NHS struggles with funding.